I'm glad the White Sox didn't match the offer. I still think the time has come to go in a different direction and starting thinking on the long term. Give Flowers a shot.

I think there was still a way to creatively get Flowers a lot of PT at C, enough to find out if he's really a guy you can count on everyday for the next 3-4 years plus have a backup plan in Pierzynski if Flowers doesn't pan out, and find a way to get Pierzynski's bat in the lineup. Between Dunn's continued struggles and Konerko's age I don't think it would have been that hard. You're still talking about a guy who put up 3.3 oWAR last season, 2nd best on the team. Even if he falls back to Earth a little bit, that's a big cog out of a lineup that was barely above the AL average in RS/G.